The Big South Conference’s regular season men’s champion hosts the semifinal of the championship tournament.  As marvelous as an idea it is to allow the regular season champion host, it is extremely flawed.

            Take for example this year.  The second round was hosted at Asheville’s Justice Center.  The Justice Center holds 1,100 fans.  The gym’s court space is small as well.  The “press row” was comfortable if you are less than five feet tall and 100 pounds.  Not many people fit that description.  The game was also broadcasted nationally on ESPNU.  Grant it, not many people get the channel.

            The Big South is broadcasted to 20 million subscribers that the championship is played at a small gymnasium.  It was as if they thought only Liberty or Winthrop would win the conference every year.

            The situation gets even worse at the championship game.  The final game is played at the highest remaining seed.  Example:  UNC Asheville loses to Liberty.  High Point beats Winthrop.  That situation has both lower seeds winning.  The final round would be played at High Point.

Liberty then played the opening round at home, the second round at UNCA and the final round at HPU.  Five day span leaves them all across creation to win a berth to the most important basketball tournament in the land.

            The Big South has a serious problem here.  If the one seed loses, the ESPN family of networks is driven to two different venues.  If there was one predetermined site, things would work much easier.

            Imagine if Charleston Southern won the regular season then Liberty happen to get the championship game via upset.  The Big South would be going from Charleston, SC to Lynchburg, VA.  That would be a six-hour drive in one day for the teams and tem personnel.

            The Big South needs to advert the problem before a problem happens.  It is a simple solution; you want the conference to have a larger footprint?  Treat it like it is big foot rather than a big joke.

            I’ll give a recap of the High Point game versus Winthrop.  Game time, if I can fit…

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 High Point late game heroics came up short against home standing Liberty University.  The Panthers shot another dismal 38 percent from the floor in the 55-51 loss.

Leading High Point (10-9, 2-3) was Arizona Reid with 25 points and eight rebounds.  The other Panther in double digits was Mike Jefferson with 13 points and a season best eight rebounds.  Liberty (11-9, 3-1) had three players in double figures leading was Alex McLean with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

HPU did not start off well opening the game with a season worst five minute scoring drought.  Over that time, Liberty opened up a nine point lead.  High Point went down 10 before going on a 13-3 run to end the first half.

Score knotted at half time with LU shooting 40 percent from the floor and HPU shooting 37 percent.  Shooting was not the talk of the night.

The Flames built an eight-point lead before the Panthers went on a eight point scoring run to knot it again at 44.  After a trade of three pointers brought the score to 47, Reid hit a lay-up to give the Panthers the lead.

High Point was back in a deficit after the flames grabbed a 51-49 lead.  Reid provided late game excitement hitting two free throws to even the score.

After a missed shot, the push for a rebound lead to a High Point foul with Liberty making two free throws.  The final play of the game was a lay-up to seal the deal for LU.

The Panthers had one bright spot on the day shooting a perfect 10 for 10 from the line.  The Flames shot a respectable 69 percent.  Both teams were the top two teams in free throws in the Big South Conference.

The Panthers return to action Monday night as they play Radford University at the Dedmon Center.  Game time is set for 7 pm.

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